GMAT Club

Katharine Lewis Reviews

Company: mbaMission

Spending several years reading and evaluating MBA applications for the Stanford Graduate School of Business inspired Katharine Lewis to coach business school applicants on her own for a time before becoming an mbaMission Senior Consultant. She has since earned more than 70 five-star reviews on GMAT Club, making her one of the top-rated admissions consultants in the industry. With 12 MBAs from six schools in her family, she passionately believes that business school provides essential leadership training for any career. After graduating summa cum laude from Yale, Katharine earned her JD and MBA (with distinction) from Harvard. She then joined McKinsey & Company, where she completed consulting projects for finance, forest products, retail and nonprofit clients, and designed and established two business-government advocacy groups: a roundtable partnership under David Rockefeller comprising the top New York–based CEOs, and a Washington, DC, coalition of AMEX-listed, midsize companies committed to pro-growth tax and regulatory policies. After reluctantly declining a teaching offer from Harvard Business School, Katharine practiced law with Morrison & Foerster before switching her focus to education and nonprofit consulting. She chaired finance at a highly successful start-up school, served on four school boards, and completed projects for the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. Katharine also assisted Professor Kathleen M. Connell (the former California State Controller) in her finance class at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and contributed to Moving Up to Millions: The Life Calculator Guide to Wealth (Wiley, 2007)

5.0 /5 Average Rating
Based on 173 reviews
October 27, 2013
Anonymous

Posts: 0

Kudos: 5

Self-reported Score:
730 Q47 V42

I wanted to briefly share my experience working with Katy on the forum. As a male applicant from an overrepresented career demographic, I first got in touch with Katy so I could better craft my story. I had heard good things about MBA Mission, however my expectations were low. I primarily was looking for a consultant to sanity check my work and ease my anxiety as I entered the application process. What I received was far more than I ever could have anticipated. Katy immediately immersed herself in my experience to date and on our first brainstorming call already seemed to possess a crystal clear vision for my story. Her genuine care for me as an applicant was apparent in her frequent, thoughtful feedback. By the time I pressed submit, I was totally confident in all facets of my application, a true testament to Katy's expertise and attention to detail.

In the end, I was accepted to my top choice school, Columbia, early decision. I would highly recommend Katy to anyone considering applying to business school. Her advice was invaluable and her experience in the elite business school admissions space is definitely a differentiator.

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June 01, 2013
shengnanx

Joined: Jun 01, 2013

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

The school package Katharine provided offered everything I needed from start to finish for my business school applications. The brainstorming session she held with me extracted my best qualities and experiences valued by business schools. She guided me through the processes and made sure my essays and short answer questions are free of any arrogant and application-killing words. However late and wherever she was, she would respond to my questions right away. And her answers are always helpful, insightful and to the point. She also made sure I am fully prepared for every stage of my interview.

Katharine is the one who goes the extra miles to help me. She would check in all the time to make sure I was on the right track and perform mock interviews with me however many times until I was ready. She is not only a superb consultant, editor and guide, but also a caring friend, career mentor and life counselor.

I highly recommend her!

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May 31, 2013
Anonymous

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

I worked with Katharine Lewis of mbamission to apply to business school.

Services used: hour overall consultation (complementary through manhattan gmat) & hourly package (3 hours)

Overall Consultation: KLewis listened assertively to my story and was able to provide incredible advice on short term and long term ways I could improve my candidacy for business school. She provided insightful strategic advice for my overall plan, as well as tangible tactical things I could implement into my day to day.

Examples of the tactical advice: community service organizations I could join that aligned with my interests, advice on my professional direction (staying in my current career path/what sort of role I would move jobs for etc), and courses I could take at continuing study programs to complement/plug in weaknesses in my application.

Hourly Package:
- KLewis provided all the initial DIY materials that could allow me to hone in on exactly what to work on with her in our hourly sessions so that I could gain the most out of them. I opted for focused help on: resume and essay.

- Generally, her communication and responsiveness throughout the process was fantastic. I was consistently able to rely on her to respond to my questions throughout the process as well as trouble shoot queries and provide insightful helpful advice throughout. In addition, she researched the school and provided helpful advice on what they were looking for in a candidate.

- Essay, she provided incredible hands on advice on how to shape the essay so it aligned with my message as well as key edits to make it concise. Her understanding of my goals and what the bschool was looking for in a candidate made her advice incredibly valuable.

- Resume, This was where KLewis made the most impact for me. She was able to provide guidance that improved my resume substantially, making it have a clear tight message (getting it down to 1 page and culling any erroneous information) as well as changing the tone of the language to be focused much more on meaningful outcomes in my career as opposed to a task list as well as removing redundancy in messaging btw community svc to career to education entirely.

KLewis is a fantastic advisor.

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May 28, 2013
Anonymous

Posts: 11

Kudos: 9

I strongly recommend Katy Lewis at mbaMission. From big picture brainstorming down to nitty gritty essay edits, Katy was always prompt and helpful in our interactions. I bought the 1-school package and only applied to two schools in their 2nd rounds. Though she didn't have direct experience with either of the two schools I applied to, her experience with a top ad com helped tremendously in creating an effective application.

I decided on working with Katy directly after my free consulting session with mbaMission because she made me feel like I had a workable story. In another session with another agency, the consultant oversold the service and didn't shy away from being slightly condescending in an effort to show how she could be useful.

I appreciated that Katy was candid in her feedback about which ideas or experiences I should use in my application. This is probably because she has plenty of experience reading applications and we had a mutual interest in creating a successful application. I liked the brainstorming process at the beginning because a) I got my experiences and goals on paper b) it gave Katy a solid perspective on how I view myself and the foundation of my story and c) we constantly referenced my brainstorming document when answering essay questions. I think she is in high demand because of her credentials, but I took the liberty of asking any questions I had about the application process when I had them. She was very responsive even in the thick of application season in the fall.

I've already referred my girlfriend who is currently a client. mbaMission is cheaper than many of its competitors in a market where they can mercilessly price gouge. Don't take my word for it. Scan Jeremy Shinewald's book to get an idea of how systematic their approach is.

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